How to Embrace Rejection

Generally speaking, people don’t like to hear the word no. They take it personally; assume that they aren’t good enough for whatever it was the answer no was given. What if I told you there was a way to take the sting out of rejection? There’s a perspective that has proven to be valuable that I discovered when I learned how to embrace rejection.

Have you ever been hell-bent on a goal; living and breathing and pouring your all into a specific result, and it didn’t come out at all in the way you planned? In those moments when you felt crushed and defeated, you were most likely being saved from a mediocre outcome so that you would be open for something better.

I Didn’t Get That Book Deal

She was on welfare with a small child, wrote because it was her passion and it fueled her. She shopped her manuscript to twelve publishing houses – all of them rejected her work, but she refused to give up. One finally agreed to publish her work, and there aren’t very many people on the planet who don’t know who J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter are.

He Was Supposed to Be The One

She was in love with him. She believed he was everything she ever wanted and more, so she ignored the little voice inside her that was telling her it was wrong. He was absolutely beautiful and everything about him was perfection in her mind. No matter how many times he made her feel badly, she stayed, because she believed that he could be the one. She wanted more from him and was willing to give him everything.

One night, after months of arguing and nonsense and drama, he left her. He had chosen someone else and she was devastated.

Years went by and she kept to herself; protecting herself from potential heartache and finally, she was found by the most loving man she never thought she could dream up. Every time she looks back at him, the one she thought she wanted, she smiles, realizing that she dodged a bullet.

I Wasn’t Chosen For the Promotion

She worked her tail off every day and went above and beyond whatever her supervisors asked of her. She ran herself ragged constantly. Six months of corporate hell she went through so that she could apply for the promotion that entailed a raise and supervisor status.

She didn’t get the promotion, but someone who did less work than she did received the coveted position. Three months later, that person was laid off. The company was downsizing because the company she was working for was transitioning because it was being acquired by a bigger firm. All of her bosses were let go.

She realized that she no longer wanted to be a part of the corporate grind and went off on her own, starting a lucrative, million-dollar yielding business.

It’s very easy to feel rejected and wallow in the rejection that follows a shift in result that we didn’t expect. It feels horrible to be denied a relationship or an opportunity. Everything is about perspective. How patient, resourceful, and driven are you willing to be when life throws you a curve ball?

Denial, rejection, and failures aren’t bad things. They are learning opportunities that should be taken with a grain of salt so that you can switch gears and move forward in the direction you were meant to go in.

How to embrace rejection is simple…

You don’t give up and you don’t let the emotion that entails perceived failure and denial have any power over you. You are only as unstoppable as you decide to be.